22 weeks 4 days

Krewson has started getting hiccups almost daily, and I love it. There's this rhythmic "bump bump bump" that I can even feel from the outside by pressing my hand on my belly. It's so awesome. I just read about them in a pregnancy email I get, which helped confirm that that's what I'm feeling. :)

"Have you felt a light, repetitive thump thump thump in your belly yet? Soon you may feel the odd sensation of your baby having hiccups. When babies swallow a little amniotic fluid, they sometimes get hiccups as a reflex. Some babies hiccup a lot during the second and third trimesters, often daily, while others do so only once in a while. Both are normal, and a charming reminder that yes, there really is a baby in there."

It was funny the other day...I think he had hiccups, and so I was pressing my hand on the left side of my belly to feel all the bumps.  Then suddenly I felt a kick on the complete other side of my belly.  It caught me off guard...it's amazing how big he is getting!

The other thing I really enjoyed reading this week was the following:

"Unborn babies at this stage typically like to lie in a transverse position (or crossways inside your belly), with their feet and bottom on one side, and their head on the other side. Your baby's placenta is now processing about 1 litre of blood per hour (or 50 pints every 24 hours) and by 40 weeks this increases to about 12 litres per hour (600 pints in 24 hours)."

I love having a general idea of how he's laying in my belly.  The transverse position explains why I felt hiccups on one side of my belly and the kick on the other. :)

Pregnancy symptoms are really going pretty well.  I get swelling in my feet and ankles at night, which stinks, but hasn't really caused any pain yet.  I do have to be careful to not wear tight shoes or socks.  I also get horrible heel pain...my heels throb at night.  I have to wear slippers or crocs around the house any time I'm on my feet.

I guess the other news is that my belly has expanded to the point where I'm nervous about wearing my pre-pregnancy shirts.  I'm scared that I'm going to stretch them and then not like the way they fit after the baby is born.  So, I'm doing my best to switch to wearing all maternity clothes (unless I have pre-pregnancy clothes that don't get too stretched when I wear them).

Oh, also, my friends Jaclyn, Ashley, and Michelle visited this past weekend, and they brought a baby gift for me and Dave...a movement and sound baby monitor!!  I was so excited to open the gift...the movement monitor is something I wanted but didn't want to have to purchase on my own.  In case you're not familiar with them, the movement monitors sense baby movement, including breathing.  If all movement stops for 20 seconds or more, an alarm sounds.  So, essentially, it alarms you if your baby stops breathing.  This helps limit the number of times you run into the nursery and quietly stare at your baby until you see his chest rising and falling (which I can envision myself doing quite a bit).  This particular model also has a sound monitor, which works like any other baby sound monitor.  I'm pretty psyched about the gift. :)

Also, while us girls were shopping (which we did a LOT of!), Jaclyn and I fell in love with this one particular baby boy long-sleeved onesie. After arguing with myself for quite some time, I decided that I shouldn't spend any more money on baby clothes right now.  Well, Jaclyn couldn't handle walking away from the onesie, so she went back and grabbed it and bought it for Krew.  It was sweet. :)  I'll have to show a pic of it in another post, since I haven't had a chance to take a picture of it.

Alright, well, Dave and I are flying down to Florida tonight for his ultimate frisbee nationals, so I probably won't be doing any more posts until next week.

God bless!